Kuala Lumpur – Barracuda Networks, Inc. a leading provider of cloud-connected security and storage solutions, shares that 44 percent of Malaysians surveyed felt confident their organisations move to public cloud was secure.

The findings were part of a survey on public cloud commisioned by Barracuda and conducted by Vanson Bourne amongst 450 people in 6 countries in Asia Pacific (APAC) including Malaysia. Respondents came from different sectors and industries including manufacturing, technology, financial services and more.

James Forbes-May, Vice President of Asia Pacific, Barracuda shares, “58 percent of the Malaysians surveyed, said that they have more trust on public cloud today as compared to five years ago. Yet only 36.10 percent of Malaysian respondents said their organisations were using public cloud.”

Malaysian respondents also choose Google as their preferered public cloud provider with 70 percent of respondents organisations using the service. Amazon Web Services was next at 48 percent while Microsoft Azure followed close with 40 percent and IBM Bluemix at 34 percent. Respondents also stated that their organisations used more than one cloud provider.

69 percent of APAC responders stated that this was due to different providers having different strength, while 35 percent said no one provider was able to provide everything they needed on one platform. This however creates a complex IT environment and higher costs. Public cloud accounted for 22.71 percent of IT budget spending for these Malaysian respondents organisations.

66 percent of respondents in Malaysia shared that their organisations had added additional security measures to secure their public cloud access and use. This leaves 1/3 open to security breaches when they leave the security responsibilities solely on their Infrastructure as a service (IAAS) provider.

“Only 60 percent of the Malaysians surveyed were aware of their organisations and public cloud providers responsibility in terms of security. This was much lower than the APAC average of 78 percent. It is essential that organisations understand that they need to take necessary precautions when storing data on public cloud,” explained Forbes-May.

“68 percent of Malaysian surveyed said their organisations have been targeted by cyber security attacks in the past. These attacks hinder business operations and worst business loss. 1/3 of the APAC respondents (37 percent) said customers or employees lost faith in the organisations security measures. While 30 percent reported a temporary closure of business while 22 percent of those surveyed entirely lost their customers,” shares Forbes-May.

Despite the security concerns, 65 percent of the Malaysian respondents organisations, store customer bank details in public cloud, while 48 percent admitted to storing personal employee data on public cloud.

The survey results points that cloud adoption by organisations are driven by various factors. 63 percent of APAC respondents report that easy integration with legacy technology and strong protection of application in public cloud (60 percent) were important drivers to choosing a public cloud Iaas provider.

“All respondents reported that their organisation has benefitted from moving to the public cloud – improved security of applications (55 percent) and greater scalability (55 percent) toped the list of benefits. On average, respondents report that their organisation has seen a positive ROI of approximately 29.26 percent,” ends Forbes-May.

Of respondents whose organisation uses more than one public cloud provider, over nine in ten (96 percent) say that their organisation would see benefits from using fewer service providers, with better protection of applications in the cloud being the most likely (56 percent).

Barracuda solutions are cloud ready and designed for hybrid deployments. Barracuda on-premises and cloud solutions can work seamlessly together to protect customers’ data and applications regardless of where they reside.